Amaranth. This covers many varieties of a sweetish green leafy vegetable known by many different names, including callalloo, elephant’s ear, African/Chinese/Ceylon/Indian spinach, Surinam amaranth, basella etc. Most commonly it is a tropical climbing plant that can grow as high as 2 meters (6 ft), the leaves being harvested as the plant grows and cooked in the same way as spinach. In India the most common is Basella alba or Indian Spinach.